Mencahot 37a ~ Conjoined Twins

מנחות לז, א

בעא מיניה פלימו מרבי מי שיש לו שני ראשים באיזה מהן מניח תפילין א"ל או קום גלי או קבל עלך שמתא אדהכי אתא ההוא גברא א"ל איתיליד לי ינוקא דאית ליה תרי רישי כמה בעינן למיתב לכהן אתא ההוא סבא תנא ליה חייב ליתן לו י' סלעים

The Sage Peleimu asked Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: In the case of one who has two heads, on which of them does he don tefillin [phylacteries]? Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: Either get up and exile yourself from here or accept upon yourself excommunication [for asking such a ridiculous question]. In the meantime, a certain man arrived and said to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: A firstborn child has been born to me who has two heads. How much money must I give to the priest for the redemption of the firstborn? A certain elder came and taught him: You are obligated to give him ten sela,the requisite five for each head.

Conjoined parapagus twins. This is likely the case brought before Rebbi Yehuda HaNasi, because these twins may have two, three, or four arms and two or three legs. The twins share the umbilicus, lower abdomen, pelvis and genitourinary tract. From Pierro A. Kiley E. Spitz, L. Classification and clinical evaluation. Seminars in Pediatric Surgery 24 (2015): 207–211.

The epidemiology and classification of Conjoined Twins

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi was indignant: there surely could be no such creature as a human with two heads. His belief was quickly challenged when he was asked about a real case of a child born with two heads - what today we call conjoined twins.

Today, conjoined twins are rare. According to a recent paper in Seminars in Pediatric Surgery, the incidence of conjoined twins ranges from 1:50,000 to 1:100,000 live births, although it is higher in Africa and in South-East Asia. Most pregnancies that are carrying conjoined twins result in miscarriages and stillbirths. Despite this, 18% of all conjoined infants survive to delivery: however about a third die in the first 24 hours, and only 18% of all conjoined twins survive longer than that. If these survival rates were similar in the times of the Mishnah (and back then the survival rate was surely even lower,) the reaction of Rabbi Yehuda’ HaNasi to the question was certainly understandable. It was extremely unlikely that they would live long enough to start the mitzvah of tefillin.

“Parapagus twins lie side to side with ventrolateral fusion. The twins share the umbilicus, lower abdomen, pelvis (single symphysis pubis), and genitourinary tract. They can have anorectal anomaly and colovesical fistula and may be at risk of anencephaly. The conjoined pelvis usually has a single symphysis pubis and one or two sacra. The thorax may be involved. The twins can have (i) separate heads (dicephalic) but the entire trunk is conjoined and (ii) separate thoraces (dithoracic) with the fusion involving the abdomen and pelvis. They can have two, three, or four arms and two or three legs.”

— Pierro, A. Kiley E. Spitz L. Classification and Clinical Evaluation. Seminars in Pediatric Surgery 24 (2015) 207–211

There are two main kinds of conjoined twins: (i) symmetric conjoined twins (this is the kind discussed in today’s Daf Yomi) and (ii) heteropagus or parasitic twins. (A parasitic twin is a grossly abnormal fetus, or fetal parts, attached externally to a relatively normal twin. They are usually comprised of externally attached additional limbs but may also contain body parts. Today, after removing these additional parts and some plastic surgery, the surviving child usually appears normal.) The most likely kind of conjoined twins that Peleimu asked about were parapagus twins. These may be born with two, three or four arms, and it is likely that in the Peleimu’s case they were born with only two arms.

One classification of conjoined twins. 1=thoracopagus, 2=omphalopagus, 3=pygopagus, 4=ischiopagus, 5=craniopagus, 6=parapagus, 7=cephalopagus, 8=rachipagus. From Pierro A. Kiley E. Spitz, L. Classification and clinical evaluation. Seminars in Pediatric Surgery 24 (2015): 207–211.

Conjoined twins in later rabbinic literature

Rabbi Yaakov Hagiz (1620–1674) was born in Fez, Morocco. For a while he lived in Italy, and around 1657 he settled in Jerusalem, where he founded a yeshivah. He described a case of conjoined male twins that he had seen.

שו"ת הלכות קטנות חלק א סימן רמה

זכורני שראיתי במדינות איטלייא גוי א' כבן כ"ה שנים שנולד דבוק עם תאומו עד הטבור חזה כנגד חזה ושם נדבקו והוא היה הולך ושלם כשאר בני אדם וראש הקטן מוטה לצד א' ורגליו תלויות ומגיעות עד ארכובותיו של גדול ולא היה בו הרגשה כלל אלא כאבר שנתבטל חושו ונתקיים כך כמה שנים עם תאומו. נסתפקו ההורגו מאי ואם מלין אותו ומהיכן הוא מתקיים מה שמתקיים צ"ל שטבורו דבוק עם של תאומו והכבד של אחיו שולח דם דרך שריון לכבד שלו ומשם ניזון כמו במעי אמו: ואפשר לדונו כדין גוסס ומלין אותו וממעט חלק ירושה ולכל דבר דינו כגוסס ואם יברך משנה הבריות כתבתי בפי' הש"ע דעל הגדול אין לברך ועל הקטן אומר דיין האמת כי רוב גוססים למיתה

A certain gentile, about twenty-five years old, who was born with a twin joined from his chest to his abdomen…who was able to walk normally like any other person. The head of the smaller twin was tilted to one side and his feet hung down and reached the thighs of the larger twin…it is possible to view the smaller twin as a goses [in the throws of death]…the blessing “he who creates different creatures”(משנה הבריות) is not to be made seeing the larger twin, but on seeing the smaller twin one should make the blessing “he who is the true judge” (דיין האמת)

Another eyewitness account of conjoined twins was recorded by Rabbi Jacob ben Joseph Reischer (~1670-1733). He served in various rabbinical positions in Prague, Worms, and Metz. In his book of responsa, Shevut Yaakov, (Vol 1 no. 4) he was asked about “an entirely new thing” brought from abroad and seen over the winter of 1708:

Two Gentile male twins joined at their skull. Each had all his limbs and feeling in them, like any other person…their faces were joined at the side, meaning that the left ear of one was next to the right ear of the other…from behind it appeared as if there was only a single extremely wide head. The rest of their bodies were quite separate; each would suckle and eat and drink and speak and feel by himself. They were more than a year old. I saw this with my own eyes and I made the correct blessing when I saw them..

Conjoined brothers from Nuremberg Chronicle (1493). From here.

…I was asked what would happen if, God forbid, there was such a case among the Jews…the case discussed in Menachot 37 is quite different from this one….Here there are two separate bodies…and there is nothing new in this, for this is what happened when the world was created…as stated in the Talmud in Berachot and in Eruvin. And the Midrash tells us that he [Adam] was created with two faces, as it states (Gen 5:2): “ זכר ונקבה בראם ויקרא שמם אדם - male and female he created them, and he called them Adam” …Since they are clearly two people each requires to put on the head tefillin (phylacteries), and place it between their own eyes. However they may not marry for there is a question of the prohibition against adultery, for they must sleep together in one bed. It is also forbidden for one to have intercourse because the other is watching… and may the Merciful One deliver us from all the odd and deformed creatures…

The Case in Menachot, and the Hensel twins

In 2002 Michael Barilan from the Meir Hospital and the Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv, published a lengthy paper (Head Counting and Heart Counting) which questioned the assumption that a conjoined twin’s natural interest and wish is separation. “Too often” he wrote, “we tend to oversimplify bioethical problems and see them as a zero-sum game between rival individuals. Conjoinment challenges our sense of selfhood and identity. Rising to this challenge may refresh many commonplace notions about individuality, identity, and being with other people as a fundamental manifestation of being alive as human beings.”

Abby and Brittany Hensel. From here.

Abby and Brittany Hensel are a perfect example of Barilan’s thesis. Born in 1990 in Minnesota, their parents decided not to seperate them at birth after learning that the chances of either surviving such an operation was extremely low. They have a single body and each controls the arms and leg on her side. They learned to walk at a normal age, graduated high school in 2008 and although each twin had to take her own test, they have driver’s licenses (and you can watch them driving here). The twins featured in a three part reality show on TLC in 2012, which later aired on the BBC. It featured their graduation from Bethel University, subsequent job search, and their travels in Europe. Their story, and those of many other unseparated twins, demonstrates that conjoined people may lead loving, meaningful and fulfilling lives together, whether or not they decide to don tefillin each day.

“Both modern canon law and common law determine human individuation by the head. Possibly they had better count hearts. Head-counting is close to a Cartesian view of the soul as a distinct entity that is anchored in the head but not directly engaged with the human body. The Cartesian body is related to its mind as chattel to owner, thus promoting the economic language of division and distribution of lives and limbs...Heart-counting isless metaphysically ambitious or economically domineering and is more attuned to the practical constraints of embodied life, particularly of social beings.”

— Y. Michael Barilan. Head-Counting vs. Heart-Counting: An Examination of the Recent Case of the Conjoined Twins from Malta. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 2002. 45; 4; 593-603.

Zevachim 113b ~ On the Identity of the Re'em

The enormous Re'em

In tomorrow's daf yomi there is a rare and welcome break from the detailed discussions of the laws of sacrifices. It addresses the רימא, the re'em, an animal of enormous size.  How, the Talmud wonders, did it survive the Great Flood of Noah? One possibility is that it fled to Israel, where, according to some, the waters of the flood did not reach. But there were other opinions that the Flood even reached Israel. In that case, how did the re'em survive? It could not have hid in Israel and it would have been too big to fit inside the Ark. Rabbi Yannai had an answer:

זבחים קיג, ב

 א"ר ינאי גוריות הכניסו בתיבה והאמר רבה בר בר חנה לדידי חזי לי אורזילא דרימא בת יומא והוי כהר תבור והר תבור כמה הויא ארבעין פרסי משכא דצואריה תלתא פרסי מרבעתא דרישא פרסא ופלגא רמא כבא וסכר ירדנא א"ר יוחנן ראשו הכניסו לתיבה והאמר מר מרבעתא דרישא פרסא ופלגא אלא ראש חוטמו הכניסו לתיבה

Rabbi Yannai says: They brought re'em cubs into the ark, and they survived the flood. [The Gemara asks:] But doesn’t Rabba bar bar Chana say: I have seen a day-old offspring of the reima, and it was as large as Mount Tabor. And how large is Mount Tabor? It is forty parasangs. And the length of the cub’s neck was three parasangs, and the place where its head rests, i.e., its neck, was a parasang and a half. When it cast its feces, it dammed up the Jordan river. [So even the cub would have been too large for the ark.] Rabbi Yoḥanan says: They brought only the head of the cub into the ark, while its body remained outside. The Gemara asks: But didn't Rabba bar bar Chana say that the size of the place where its head rests was a parasang and a half? [Consequently, even its head alone would not fit into the ark.] Rather, they brought the edge, of its nose into the ark, so that it might breathe. 

Just what might be the identity of this mysterious, enormous animal?  Let's take a look. But first some background.

The re'em in the Bible

The word ראם, re'em appears several times in the Hebrew Bible. Here, for example, is a verse from Deuteronomy (33:17) which describes the offspring of Joseph.

דברים לג: יז

בְּכ֨וֹר שׁוֹר֜וֹ הָדָ֣ר ל֗וֹ וְקַרְנֵ֤י רְאֵם֙ קַרְנָ֔יו בָּהֶ֗ם עַמִּ֛ים יְנַגַּ֥ח יַחְדָּ֖ו אַפְסֵי־אָ֑רֶץ וְהֵם֙ רִבְב֣וֹת אֶפְרַ֔יִם וְהֵ֖ם אַלְפֵ֥י מְנַשֶּֽׁה׃

Like a firstling bull in his majesty, He has horns like the horns of the re'em; With them he gores the peoples, The ends of the earth one and all. These are the myriads of Ephraim, Those are the thousands of Manasseh. 

The re'em is specifically identified by the great translator of the Bible Oneklos (~35-120 CE) as one of the species singled out in the Torah as being kosher:

דברים יד: ד–ה

 זֹ֥את הַבְּהֵמָ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר תֹּאכֵ֑לוּ שׁ֕וֹר שֵׂ֥ה כְשָׂבִ֖ים וְשֵׂ֥ה עִזִּֽים׃ אַיָּ֥ל וּצְבִ֖י וְיַחְמ֑וּר וְאַקּ֥וֹ וְדִישֹׁ֖ן וּתְא֥וֹ וָזָֽמֶר׃

These are the animals that you may eat; the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the dishon, the antelope, the mountain sheep.

Onkelos translates that word דִישֹׁ֖ן into Aramaic as רֵימָא - the re'em. And then there is this passage from the Book of Job (39:9-12):

איוב לט:ט–יב

הֲיֹ֣אבֶה רֵּ֣ים עָבְדֶ֑ךָ אִם־יָ֝לִ֗ין עַל־אֲבוּסֶֽךָ׃ הֲ‍ֽתִקְשָׁר־רֵ֭ים בְּתֶ֣לֶם עֲבֹת֑וֹ אִם־יְשַׂדֵּ֖ד עֲמָקִ֣ים אַחֲרֶֽיךָ׃

Most English versions of this passage translate the word re'em as "wild ox"and so read: 

Would the wild ox agree to serve you? Would he spend the night at your crib?  Can you hold the wild ox by ropes to the furrow? Would he plow up the valleys behind you?

But not the King James Bible. It goes in an entirely different direction: 

Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

So according to the King James Bible, the re'em is a unicorn. Why on earth would the translators have chosen, of all creatures, the mythical unicorn as the re'em?

“The men who [produced the King James Bible], who pored over the Greek and Hebrew texts, comparing the accuracy and felicity of previous translations, arguing with each other over the finest details of chapter and verse, were many of them obscure at the time and are generally forgotten now, a gaggle of fifty or so black-gowned divines whose names are almost unknown but whose words continue to resonate with us.”

— Adam Nicoloson. God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible. Harper Collins 2005. xi

The re'em is a unicorn. Or maybe not.

Well, they didn't. They merely followed the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the third century BCE. And the Septuagint translated the Hebrew re'em as μονόκερως - monokeros, or "one horned". Which is why the King James Bible translated it as a unicorn, from the Latin uni meaning "single" and cornu meaning "horn". And since, according to the Talmud, the Septuagint was created at the command of Ptolemy II by seventy-two Jewish sages, you could claim that the King James translation was following a long Jewish tradition.

“King Ptolemy once gathered 72 Elders. He placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one, without revealing to them why they were summoned. He entered each one’s room and said: “Write for me the Torah of Moshe, your teacher”. God put it in the heart of each one to translate identically as all the others did.”

— TB Megillah 9a-b

This translation made its way into later rabbinic commentary. For example, R. Dovid Kimche (1160-1235), in his dictionary of the Hebrew language called Sefer Hashorashim, wrote that the re'em has only one horn. And Abraham Yagel, (1553 – 1623), the Italian rabbi and exegete, mentioned a one-horned re'em that had been captured and brought to Portugal:

Book IV, ch. 45: 108a בית יער הלבנון 

ובימנו הובא בארץ פורטוגאלי מן האי האינדי׳ ראם אחד במצודה צדו אותו ומראה צורתו הביאו אח׳כ עוברי אורחות ימים והוא גדול מהפיל ומזרין בקסקשיו בכל עורו וקרן חזות עב על חוטמו אשר בו לחם מלחמות עם הפיל ועם שאר החיות

And in our days a re'em was brought to Portugal from India having been ambushed and trapped, and afterwards sea travellers reported how it looked. It is larger than an elephant and its scales cover all its skin. It has a thick horn on its nose which it uses in fights with the elephant and with other creatures...

As Natan Slifkin points out, what Yagel what was actually describing was a rhinoceros: "It was given to King Manuel of Portugal by Alfonso de Albuquerque, governor of Portuguese India. This was the first rhinoceros to be brought to Europe since Roman times, and it caused quite a sensation." Quite so.

But before we conclude that the re'em was a rhinoceros, there are a couple of problems. First, although it was once found in the Land of Israel, the rhinoceros remains so far discovered only go back to the Mousterian era, which ended about 35,000 years ago. That's quite a few years before the biblical period. Thus it is very unlikely that there were rhinoceri in Israel in the biblical period. And second, the re'em in the Bible is described as having two horns.  Two. "וְקַרְנֵ֤י רְאֵם֙ קַרְנָ֔יו" His horns are like the horns of the re'em" (Deut.33:17). So much for the rhinoceros or unicorn.

Artist's rendering of the aurochs. Is this the re'em mentioned in the Torah? From here.

A better candidate: The Aurochs

There is a better candidate for the mysterious re'em, but it is an animal neither you, nor I, nor anyone we know has ever seen. It is the aurochs, Bos primigenius, an enormous species of cattle that became extinct in 1627. The aurochs (pronounced oar-ox) weighed in somewhere around 1,500lb - or 700kg. That's certainly a big animal, though not as big as the Mount Tabor-sized beast described by Rabba bar bar Chana. It also has the added bonus of having two horns, just like the re'em described in the Torah. The suggestion that the re'em is the aurochs seems to have become popular with late nineteenth-century Christian scholars, as you can see here:

Sunday-School Teacher's Bible. Philadelphia, A.J Holman & Co. 1895. p115.

Matthew George Easton Illustrated Bible Dictionary. London, T. Nelson & Sons 1894. p678.

The Aurochs and the prehistoric cave paintings of Lasaux

Of all the animals that have intrigued human beings, perhaps none goes further back in time than the aurochs. Among the cave paintings of animals found in the Lasaux cave, are aurochs. And these paintings (there are nearly 6,000 of them) are from the Paleolithic period, 17,000 years ago.  The largest of the aurochs depicted there is over 15 feet long. There are similar paintings of the aurochs  in another cave system called La-Tete-Du-Lion in southern France, which has been dated to 26,000 BCE. We will, of course, never know with certainty whether the long-extinct aurochs was the re'em. But we have been fascinated with the aurochs for as long as we have walked the earth.  What better candidate could there be for the mysterious creature that somehow survived Noah's flood. 

Detail from the Lascaux cave drawing, about 17,000 years old.

Zevachim 112a ~ Caesarean Section in Cows and Ewes

Since its construction in Jerusalem, it was prohibited to offer a sacrifice outside of the Temple.  However, in today's page of Talmud there is a list of animals which, even if offered outside of the Temple, incur no penalty to their owner.  Among these are an animal that was born by caesarean section:

זבחים קיב, א

ויוצא דופן שהקריבן בחוץ פטור

One who sacrifices an animal born by caesarian section, outside of the

Temple, is exempt from punishment.

The term יוצא דופן literally means "brought out through the wall", the wall in question being the abdomen. Animals born by c-section may not be used as sacrifices in the Temple. There is something different, not quire right, perhaps not normal, about them. That's why these same c-sectioned animals may be offered outside of the Temple without penalty.  Or as the Mishnah on today's page puts it, "whatever is not fit to come as a sacrifice in the Tabernacle [used in the wilderness], carries no liability if offered as a sacrifice outside of it."

The indications for a caesarean section in a cow

Before we go further, a clarification. The surgical procedure about which we are discussing can be spelled in various ways: caesarean, Caesarean, cesarean or just plain "c." Take your pick. Anyway, according to the American College of Veterinary Surgeons, there are several indications for performing a c-section in a cow:

• Inadequate cervical dilation (not enough relaxation of the cervix muscles)
• Abnormal pelvic bone conformation (shape) in the cow
• Rupture of the cow's abdominal musculature
• Problems with uterine position or uterine function
• Abnormalities of the cow's uterus or vagina
• Abnormal calf position that is not correctable through the vagina
• Fetal monsters (congenital defects)
• Presence of a dead fetus

Standing left oblique celiotomy approach. The placement of the incision is indicated by the dashed line. From Schultz L.G. et al. Surgical approaches for cesarean section in cattle. Can Vet J 2008;49:565–568

Having decided that your cow needs a c-section, there are no fewer that eight different ways you could operate on her to pull this off. Eight! Here they are: (The positions described are that of the cow, not that of the surgeon.)

1. standing left paralumbar celiotomy,
2. standing right paralumbar celiotomy,
3. recumbent left paralumbar celiotomy,
4. recumbent right paralumbar celiotomy,
5. recumbent ventral midline celiotomy,
6. recumbent ventral paramedian celiotomy,
7. ventrolateral celiotomy,
8. standing left oblique celiotomy

According to this helpful paper published in the Canadian Medical Journal, it is the left oblique approach that is preferable under most circumstances. This is because the uterus is readily removed from the abdominal cavity limiting contamination of the abdominal cavity.  

...and in sheep

In sheep, things are only slightly different. The most common cause for performing a c-section is a fetal lamb in the wrong position, one which cannot be safely corrected by manipulation. This is the cause of about 50% of all sheep c-sections.  The cause of about another third is incomplete or non-dilation of the cervix which has failed to respond to medical treatment.  Feto-pelvic disproportion, in which a single large lamb is too big to pass through the maternal pelvis account for another 5%.  There are generally three approaches to the c-section: through the flank, through the midline, and through an incision parallel to the midline, which is called the paramedian approach. Today the midline approach is not recommended, because it requires a general anesthetic, as opposed to a local injection. (You can read more about c-sections in the ewe in this helpful article.)

Exceptional animals with exceptional births

In modern Hebrew the phrase meaning a caesarean section, יוצא דופן, has another meaning: exceptional. Which certainly describes these animals born by c-section. In the pre-modern era, when there were neither local anesthetics nor antibiotics, there would have been only one survivor of a c-section if you were lucky, and it wasn't the mother. (We will have more to say about the c-section survival rate in women when we learn Bechorot 47 on June 3, 2019.)  For these animals who, but for the intervention of a skilled vet would otherwise have died in-utero, perhaps being spared from sacrifice was rather fitting.  If their birth was abrupt, bloody and at the hands of a human, perhaps their deaths could be different.  

“בהמה המקשה ללדת ויש סכנה לחייה, כי הוולד מת, והרפתנים קובעים שצריכים לחתוך את הוולד ולהוציאו דבלי זה הפרה תמות. אם מותר לעשות זה בשבת. אם צער בע”ח דוחה איסור מוקצה. הב”ח בסימן שח סעיף כג, מדבריו משמע דמשום צער בע”ח שרי טלטול מוקצה. וכנראה שהמחמירים לא ראו דברי הב”ח ולכן יש להתיר וכדאי הוא הב”ח לסמוך עליו 

The question of performing an emergency caesarean section on animal on Shabbat: 

...Does the prohibition of not causing pain to animals override the prohibition of מוקצה muktzeh [not touching certain items on Shabbat]?...Those who are strict in this matter [and prohibit the c-section] have not seen the words of the Bach [R. Yoel Sirkis 1561-1640]. It is permissible [to perform the surgery] and appropriate to rely on the opinion of the Bach”

— Rabbi Tzvi Pesach Frank [1874-1960]. Har Tzvi Tal Harim Shvut 3.

Are You Ready for the Lunar Eclipse?

On Friday July 27 and into the early hours of Shabbat on July 28, there will be a total lunar eclipse. Now, these are not that rare - elsewhere we discussed the one that occurred on the first night of Sukkot (September 27) 2015. But this one will be a little different from that 2015 Sukkot eclipse.  That one occurred when the moon was at its closest to the earth; this one will occur when the moon is at its furthest point from earth.  So the moon will be a little smaller. You can see the relative differences is size of the two below.

Courtesy of NASA.

As we've noted before, a solar eclipse can only occur at the start of  a Hebrew month, as the moon gets between the sun and the earth.  A lunar eclipse is also linked to the Jewish month, and can only occur around the 15th day of the month, when the moon is full.  As the earth passes between the sun and the moon, its shadow is cast onto the moon, resulting in an eclipse.

 So why don't we see a lunar eclipse every month? The answer is simple. The moon's orbit is inclined at 5 degrees from the sun-earth plane, so that each month the moon may be slightly above, or slightly below that plane. And a lunar eclipse will occur only when the three bodies line up on the same plane as the earth-sun.

The shabbat Lunar Eclipse

The figure below (from here) shows when and how much of the eclipse you will be able to see.  As you can see, this eclipse will not be visible anywhere over North America. Which seems only fair since North America had its own spectacular solar eclipse last year, and didn't share that with the rest of the world.

From here

But elsewhere there are great opportunities to get a good view. Here are some:

	Jerusalem	London	Paris	Sydney	Mumbai
Duration	6 hours, 13 mins, 51 sec	3 hours, 39 mins, 22 sec	3 hours, 59 mins, 37 sec	3 hours, 40 mins, 40 sec	6 hours, 13 mins, 51 sec
Duration of totality	1 hour, 42 mins, 56 sec	1 hour, 23 mins, 55 sec	1 hour, 42 mins, 56 sec	1 hour, 25 mins 12 sec	1 hour, 42 mins, 56 sec
Penumbral begins	Jul 27 at 8:14:47 pm	Moon below horizon	Moon below horizon	Jul 28 at 3:14:47 am	Jul 27 at 10:44:47 pm
Partial begins	Jul 27 at 9:24:27 pm	Moon below horizon	Moon below horizon	Jul 28 at 4:24:27 am	Jul 27 at 11:54:27 pm
Full begins	Jul 27 at 10:30:15 pm	Moon below horizon	Jul 27 at 9:29:01 pm	Jul 28 at 5:30:15 am	Jul 28 at 1:00:15 am
Moonrise	None	Jul 27 at 8:49:16 pm	Jul 27 at 9:30:15 pm	Jul 28 at 6:21:44 am	None
Maximum	Jul 27 at 11:21:44 pm	Jul 27 at 9:21:44 pm	Jul 27 at 10:21:44 pm	Jul 28 at 6:55:27 am	Jul 28 at 1:51:44 am
Full ends	Jul 28 at 12:13:11 am	Jul 27 at 10:13:11 pm	Jul 27 at 11:13:11 pm	Moon below horizon	Jul 28 at 2:43:11 am
Partial ends	Jul 28 at 1:19:00 am	Jul 27 at 11:19:00 pm	Jul 28 at 12:19:00 am	Moon below horizon	Jul 28 at 3:49:00 am
Penumbral ends	Jul 28 at 2:28:38 am	Jul 28 at 12:28:38 am	Jul 28 at 1:28:38 am	Moon below horizon	Jul 28 at 4:58:38 am

For the sake of our many new readers, and to refresh the minds of our others, let's take a re-look at what Judaism has to teach us about eclipses.

The Talmud on Eclipses

תלמוד בבלי סוכה דף כט עמוד א 

תנו רבנן: בזמן שהחמה לוקה - סימן רע לעובדי כוכבים, לבנה לוקה - סימן רע לשונאיהם של ישראל, מפני שישראל מונין ללבנה ועובדי כוכבים לחמה

תנו רבנן: בשביל ארבעה דברים חמה לוקה: על אב בית דין שמת ואינו נספד כהלכה, ועל נערה המאורסה שצעקה בעיר ואין מושיע לה, ועל משכב זכור, ועל שני אחין שנשפך דמן כאחד

Our Rabbis taught, A solar eclipse is a bad omen for idolaters; a lunar eclipse is a bad omen for Israel, because Israel reckons [its calendar] by the moon, and idolaters by the sun...

Our Rabbis taught, A solar eclipse happens because of four things:
1. When an Av Bet Din [head of the Rabbinic Court] died and was not properly eulogized;
2. If a betrothed girl cried out aloud in the city and there was no-one to save her [from being raped];
3. Because of homosexuality; and
4 If two brothers were killed at the same time.

That's what we have - four causes of a solar eclipse, and none for a lunar eclipse - we are just told that it is a "bad omen for Israel." And how does Rashi explain this passage?  לא שמעתי טעם בדבר  - "I have not heard any explanation for this." 

LATER JEWISH EXPLANATIONS OF A SOLAR ECLIPSE

If we know that eclipses are regular celestial events whose timing is predictable and precise, how are we to understand Talmud in Sukkah, which suggests that an eclipse is a divine response to human conduct? We have already seen that Rashi was unable to explain the passage, but that didn't stop others from trying.  The Maharal of Prague (d. 1609) has a lengthy explanation which you can read here.  It goes something like this: "Yes, an eclipse is a mechanical and predictable event. But in truth, if there was no sin, there would be no eclipses, because God would have designed the universe differently, and in such a sin-free universe...there would be no need to design an eclipse." So the Maharal suggests that in a sin-free universe, the moon would not orbit as it does now, at a 5 degree angle to the sun-earth plane.  But where would the moon be? It couldn't be in the same plane as the sun and the earth, since then there would be an solar eclipse every month. If it were at say 20 degrees above the plane, then there would still be both solar and lunar eclipses, though they would be more rare. The only way for there to be no solar eclipses (in the Maharal's sin-free imaginary universe) would be for the moon to orbit the earth at 90 degrees to the sun-earth axis.  Then it would never come between the sun and the earth, and there could never be a solar eclipse. Perfect, except then there would never be a Rosh Chodesh, and the moon would always be visible. Oy.

יערות דבש דרוש י׳ב

Another attempt to explain the Talmud was offered by Jonatan Eybeschutz (d. 1764). In 1751 Eybeschutz was elected as chief rabbi of the Three Communities (Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbek), and was later accused of being a secret follower of the false messiah Shabtai Zevi. In January 1751, Eybeschutz gave a drasha Hamburg in Hamburg in which he addressed the very same problem that the Maharal had noted: if a solar eclipse is a predictable event, how can it be related to human conduct? His answer was quite different: The Talmud in Sukkah is not actually addressing the phenomenon that we call a solar eclipse. According to Eybeschutz, the phrase in Sukkah "בזמן שהחמה לוקה" actually means - "when there are sunspots."

Inventive though this is, it is as implausible as the suggestion of the Maharal. In the first place, sunspots were almost (but not quite impossible) to see prior to the invention of the telescope. They were described in March 1611 by a contemporary of Galileo named Christopher Scheiner (though Galileo lost no-time in claiming that he, not Scheiner was the first to correctly interpret what they were.) Because sunspots were so difficult to see with the naked eye, it seems unlikely that this is what the rabbis in Gemara Sukkah were describing.

Christopher Scheine, Rosa Ursina sive Sol (Bracciai 1626-1630)

Second, according to Eybeschutz, sunspots "have no known cause, and have no fixed period to their appearance".  We can't fault Eybeschutz  for his first claim, but - even by the science of his day - his second was not correct. In fact both Scheiner and Galileo knew  - and wrote - that sunspots were permanent (at least for a while) and moved slowly across the face of the sun.

It's interesting to note that Galileo got very excited about the discovery that the spots moved across the face of the sun. This suggested (though it did not prove) that the sun itself was spinning. Galileo had also discovered that Jupiter was orbited by moons. Both of these discoveries now added further support to the Copernican model in which the Earth was spinning on its ownaxis, and was not the center of all the movement of objects in the sky. But Eybeschutz did not believe Copernicus was correct: "Copernicus and his supporters have made fools of themselves when they declare that the Earth orbits [the Sun]. They have left us with a lie, and the truth will bear itself witness that the Earth stands still for ever."  Eybeschutz wanted to have sunspots explain away a talmudic mystery, but he dismissed the evidence that they provided in other matters - namely, that the earth moves.

Don't worry America, there's another one coming....

For those who live in North America, the next opportunity to see a total lunar eclipse will be on January 20, 2019 - which is only a few months from now. But what you should start planning for is the next total solar eclipse that will be visible in North America.  Mark your calendars now. It will be on Monday April 8, 2024, two weeks before the start of Passover. So plan accordingly.

[Want even more? Then read this: The Great American Eclipse of 2017: Halachic and Philosophical Aspects.]